When You Wish Upon a Star

By Zamgwar
ALL EARS® Feature Writer

Feature Article

This article appeared in the
December 23, 2003, Issue #222 of ALL EARS®
(ISSN: 1533-0753)

By now the cookies are baked, secret punch recipes have been
prepared, presents are wrapped, menorahs are lit, stockings are
hung and signs of the many holidays that fill this season
sparkle everywhere. As friends and loved ones gather, tradition
takes center stage in homes across the world. Perhaps one of the
greatest and most overlooked traditions this time of year
is wishing.

It is something that everyone seems to enjoy doing regardless of
the particular name of their holiday. As adults, we wish we were
younger. Children may wish they were older. We wish we were
richer. We wish for the perfect gift. We wish for an ache to go
away. We wish we didn't burn the turkey (well, maybe that's just
me). A frequent wish among ALL EARS® readers is a trip to spend
more time with the Mouse.

Are these wishes ever granted? And if they are, who grants them?
After much thought, I believe I know.

Time is the ultimate "Blue Fairy" that makes all childhood
"wished upon a star dreams" come true.

Yes, it's true; each passing year, at times, seems akin to a
dark, diabolical, Disney villain waiting to wreak havoc upon our
days. Like some sorcerer, it sprouts a new gray hair daily. It
causes our clothes to mysteriously shrink and tighten on us. It
forces us to make noises when we bend at the waist. It can bring
the deepest of sorrows to each of our doorsteps without warning.

Time also, like most things in nature, tries to achieve a
balance. It magically seems to sort through our wishes folder
and sprinkle pixie dust on selective ones to make them come
true. Often it does this without us realizing it.

Digging into long-lost memories usually makes it all perfectly
clear, especially where our dreams about our mutually favorite
47 square miles of Florida are concerned.

For those of us who grew up with Walt visiting our living rooms
each Sunday evening, we may have forgotten a time when we wished
for just one stroll down Main Street, USA to see if the castle
was as beautiful as it seemed on TV. As a child you may have
closed your eyes before drifting into dreams and tried to
picture yourself gliding along in a monorail, in a place too
costly and too far for your family to ever visit. Perhaps you
can recall seeing the wonderful magic of Disney's Imagineers at
the 1963-64New York World's Fair and wished you could someday
see where all these marvels lived.

You may have found yourself silently hoping you could go, even
for a day, to that place that filled your neighbor's vacation
pictures. To feel for yourself the joy of the wind on your face
as your Test Track vehicle burst into the open air. To marvel at
the majesty of the Tree of Life.

Maybe your dreams included ones in which the grass seemed
greener on the other side of the street. It could be that as a
child or a young adult you were lucky enough find yourself
speeding through Space Mountain during a day's visit and wished
you could stay another day or even, dare you think it, a week!
Your secret wishes might have included staying IN Walt Disney
World at a budget or moderate resort and taking the bus to your
childhood fantasies every day. After achieving that you may have
said, "Wouldn't it be nice to walk, boat or monorail back to a
luxury resort rather than wait for a bus?"

For some, the dreams might have been more personal. To watch
fireworks fill the sky over the World Showcase Lagoon with
someone you love at your side. To see the sparkle of youth in
your own children's eyes as they ran toward that lovable Mouse
in short red pants. To meander among the twinkling lights at
night with those who sacrificed their dreams to raise you. For a
few, it may have been to bypass the turnstiles and enter the
parks as a Cast Member bound for work.

While we may have forgotten these wishes, Time never seems to.

For most readers it already has provided each of us the ways and
means to make our personal Disney dreams come true. Too often as
adults, the child inside us who began the "trip to Disney World
wish" is overlooked. We're too busy lamenting about the cost, or
whining children, or crowded parks. We complain about less than
perfect travel arrangements, or too many "Grumpy," "Dopey" or
"Sleepy" Cast Members and guests, and not enough "Happy" ones.
We have been full of remorse when our vacation has ended,
because it may be many years before we go again.

We tend to forget that before we had annual passes, Disney
Vacation Club points, MouseFests, favorite hotels and rooms,
favorite restaurants and for some even favorite waiters, we all
wished we could go just "once." A Disney wish, that for each of
us, was granted, in time.

Time cleverly seems to grant many of our Disney Dreams as "real
world" wishes as well.

The castle we all dreamed of as children, surrounds each of us
now. While it might be a tad cluttered and may have a turret or
two in need of repair, it protects us from the storms and
provides refuge from our daily "quests." No matter how humble
your castle may seem, I can assure you, there is someone wishing
for what you now have.

Many of us in fact ride to work in the "pumpkin coach" we hoped
for as a young newly licensed driver, even though (in my case)
the coach might have a few dings and be eight years past its
model year.

Somewhere in each of our lives, a beautiful Princess or a Prince
Charming does in fact dwell. Perhaps it is the neighbor next
door who is always ready to help with a leaky faucet or provide
instructions on how to cook a holiday feast. They can be
strangers who got your car started on a rainy night or helped
you gather important papers that had fallen on the street and
attempted to dance away on a playful breeze.

For the luckiest of us, that Prince or Princess shares our own
"castle." Time may have just tried to hide their true identity
in a plethora of pants left on the floor or milk cartons not
returned to the fridge. Our fairytale heroes and heroines may
even be disguised in the form of a pet that always seems to
nuzzle up against you and purr or bark when you need it the
most.

As much as Time tries to take from each of us, it truly attempts
to give more. Ultimately, regardless of the quantity of time
that each of us has, the quality of what we do with it is up to
us. Years, after all, are nothing more than a catalog to file
precious memories of forgotten wishes granted.

While it may be hard to see sometime, if each of us thinks back
to the first spark that led to everything that surrounds us,
we'll find that many of the dreams that we've dreamed really did
come true.

On behalf of the entire staff of ALL EARS® and all its
contributors and writers, I wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy
Chanukah, A Joyful Kwanzaa, a Super Solstice, a Blessed Ramadan,
and a happy, safe and healthy New Year.

Whatever holiday may be in your heart, may all your dreams and
wishes come true.